I am urging heritage organisations in his constituency to apply for a new National Lottery grant for Heritage. This potential funding will help organisations survive after the most challenging 12 months in their histories.
In March last year the National Lottery delivered the £50 million Heritage Emergency Fund and this was further extended in the summer and autumn and it also worked with the UK government to support cultural and heritage organisations. Among organisations to receive funding in the last distribution were Helmsley Walled Garden, Malton Museum, Ryedale Folk Museum and The Laurence Sterne Trust.
By the end of this financial year the National Lottery will have provided more than £500 million of funding across the UK. This funding will support more than 1,500 heritage organisations around the country, including in North Yorkshire along with expertise and advice on adapting to the pandemic. The support will continue into 2021 to drive forward longer-term recovery.
The National Lottery is asking heritage organisations to focus on some priority outcomes for the next round of funding, which include
- boosting the local economy
- encouraging skills development and job creation
- supporting wellbeing
- creating better places to live, work and visit
- improving the resilience of organisations operating in heritage
The past year has been one of the most difficult we have faced since WW2 and many heritage organisations are struggling as they have had to close and donations are down on previous years. I know that many organisations and projects across the region are in dire need of support. Whilst the hugely successful rollout of vaccine programme offers light at the end of the tunnel, there is still a long way to go before our lives get back to normal so I am pleased that the National Lottery is opening another round of funding for heritage organisations.
Ros Kerslake, CEO of The National Lottery Heritage Fund, said: “Heritage has an essential role to play in making communities better places to live, creating economic prosperity and supporting personal wellbeing. All of these are going to be vitally important as we build back from the pandemic. During 2020 we focused on supporting heritage across the UK to adapt and respond to the immediate impact of the COVID-19 crisis. By the end of this financial year we will have supported more than 1,500 organisations across the heritage sector with over £500million of National Lottery and Government funding. Our focus now is to support the heritage sector to strengthen its recovery and to build back for positive change – reopening applications for heritage projects is key to the success of this.”
Further information about the funding can be found on the National Lottery Heritage Fund website: https://www.heritagefund.org.uk/funding/national-lottery-grants-heritage-2021-22.
